Winter Workouts: Best Indoor Exercises When It’s Too Cold Outside

Have you ever wondered why there is such a surge in gym membership sales in the first week of every new year?

New Year’s resolutions? Sure. But these resolutions are the result of physical inactivity during the holiday season. Most people spend all their time indoors during December to beat the freeze. They also use this as an excuse to skip their workouts, resulting in excessive body weight gain. 

The shorter days and holiday indulgences add to the problem. 

Besides a bigger waistline, staying sedentary during the final few weeks of the year can lower your energy levels and result in mood swings. 

Make no mistake, it is absolutely fine to stay indoors during the freezing cold. Many of my personal training clients opt for at-home workouts during the holidays to maintain their fitness levels and overall health and well-being. 

In this article, I’ll share some fun, effective, and accessible bodyweight and yoga workouts to keep you moving and achieve your fitness objectives while staying indoors. You will also learn about how you can leverage online classes to achieve your goals. We have a lot to unpack, so sit tight and read on.

Setting the Stage for Indoor Success

Before we get into the exercises and workouts that should be a part of your indoor training routine, let’s talk about how to set up your home exercise routine for success: 

Find The Right Spot

If you are serious about training at home, you must have your dedicated sanctuary. Find an area in your home that has enough space for you to move around freely and allows you to do exercises like lunges and jumping jacks.

I highly recommend picking a place with minimal distractions. If you have people moving around, you are more likely to interact with them and cut your workout short. 

Get The Essential Equipment

Although you do not need a fully decked-out home gym to achieve your fitness objectives, investing in a few high-quality, minimal equipment can help speed up your progress. A yoga mat, resistance bands, and a few dumbbells can make all the difference. 

Create an Inspiring Atmosphere 

Working out in solidarity might work for some people. However, if you are like most people, pumping up your favorite tunes and having a few plants and greenery around can motivate you to push yourself in every workout.

Warm Up and Cool Down

Most home-based workout routines usually involve bodyweight exercises. Nonetheless, you shouldn’t overlook the importance of a thorough warm-up and cooldown routine. Performing dynamic stretches, like arm circles, leg swings, and high knees, warm up your muscles and joints, improving your range of motion and performance.

Static stretches after a workout, like the Samson stretch, child’s pose, and quad stretch, can help improve flexibility and mobility, flush out the metabolites from the muscle tissue, and enhance recovery. (1)

Yoga: Flow and Strengthen Your Way Through Winter

I particularly like yoga as an indoor workout because it is fantastic for building strength, improving flexibility and balance, and giving you much-needed mental space. It combines flowing movements, deep breathing, and mindfulness. Think of it like a moving meditation that can help you strengthen your body and mind.

Yoga isn’t some low-intensity exercise that you do after a workout to enhance your recovery. There are several yoga poses and flows that you can adopt to challenge yourself. 

The Best Yoga Flow For Winter Warmth

Here is a yoga routine suitable for most people. It isn’t uncommon for me to start sweating heavily within 10 minutes of starting this workout. 

You must hold each pose for three to five seconds, focus on steady breathing, and transition smoothly between poses. Feel free to take your time and relax into poses, even if it takes you a little longer. Remember, this is not a race. 

• Sun Salutations (Surya Namaskar): Warms up the body, improves circulation, and builds strength and flexibility.
• Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II): Strengthens legs and core, improves balance and stability. 
• Triangle Pose (Trikonasana): Stretches the posterior chain and strengthens the core and legs. 
• Seated Twists (Bharadvajasana): Enhances spinal mobility, boosts digestion, and relieves stress. 
• Corpse Pose (Savasana): Relaxes the body, calms the mind, and reduces stress.

While beginners can perform one round of this yoga flow, more experienced yogis can go up to 10 rounds. 

Dance Your Way to Fitness: Fun and Effective Cardio

Let’s be honest: many people dread traditional workouts. However, you do not have to commit to anything that you do not enjoy. Feel free to adopt a physical activity of your choice.

Dance can be a sneaky way to get fit. Zumba, hip-hop, and Bollywood are a few different dance styles that you can opt for. Better yet, you can switch between different styles every day to keep your workouts interesting and fun. 

Whether you are a seasoned pro or a complete beginner, there is a dance style for you. 

Create Your Perfect Workout Playlist

Your playlist can make or break your dancing workout. You don’t want to be stopping during the workout to find the right tunes. Instead, have your favorite music ready in a playlist. Here are a few tips to help you get started:

• Choose the style that motivates you: Pick music that gets your feet tapping. It could be the latest pop hits, classic rock anthems, or electronic beats.
• Vary the tempo: Strategically combine high-energy tracks with slow songs to have a balance of intense bursts of cardio and periods for cooling down. 
• Consider different styles: Include different music styles in a single workout to challenge yourself. 

Since dancing routines involve consistent movement, most workouts last between 10 to 30 minutes. 

Bodyweight Circuit Training: Your No-Equipment Powerhouse

You should never allow frigid weather to derail your fitness progress. Contrary to what most people think, you can build strength, burn calories, and improve your fitness levels just with bodyweight exercises.

Bodyweight exercises are incredibly versatile, require zero equipment, can be done anywhere and at any time, and can be modified to suit trainers of any fitness level. 

Below are three bodyweight circuits to help you achieve your fitness goals:

Beginner Bodyweight Circuit

Full-body circuits help you get the best bang for your buck as you train every muscle group in a single workout. Prioritize using a picture-perfect training form while performing these exercises to ensure maximum muscle stimulation. 

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Squats	3	10-12
Push-ups (on knees)	3	8-10
Lunges	3	10-12 (each leg)
Plank	3	30 sec
Glute Bridges	3	12-15

Intermediate Bodyweight Circuit

This workout cranks things up a notch. You’ll be doing more challenging variations with an increased intensity to avoid muscle and strength plateaus. 

There are two ways of doing this workout. You can complete all the sets of an exercise before moving to the next one or perform three circuits of this workout with one set per round.

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Jump Squats	3	8-10
Incline Push-ups	3	8-10
Decline Push-ups	3	8-10
Walking Lunges	3	10-12 (each leg)
Side Plank	3	30 sec (each side)
Burpees (modified)	3	8-10

Advanced Bodyweight Circuit

Once you start to feel like you have mastered bodyweight exercises and workouts, it is time to move on to the next level. We are talking about explosive movements to sculpt aesthetically appealing and functional physique.

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Plyometric Push-ups	3	8-10
Pistol Squats (or progressions)	3	5-8 (each leg)
Handstand Push-up Progressions	3	As many as possible
Jump Lunges	3	8-10 (each leg)
Burpees	3	10-12
Superman Plank	3	30 sec

Things To Consider For Your Home Workouts

Here are a few tips to make the most of your training routine:

Variability

Doing the same thing over and over again can feel boring. Plus, your body might get used to your training style, which can hinder your progress. Constantly tweaking your training routine is the best way to ensure consistent progress.

However, ensure that there is a stable foundation for your exercise routine. 

I have my personal training clients create a workout schedule, as it helps keep them accountable. Don’t try to go overboard with your training routine. Find something that suits your lifestyle and does not interfere with the festivities.

Listen To Your Body

Avoid doing too much too soon. Pay close attention to how your body feels and responds during a workout. Stop a training session immediately if you feel weird or unnatural. Consult your healthcare provider if you’re experiencing pain, and it does not subside within a couple of days.

With that, you must also ensure a well-balanced diet and optimal hydration to maximize recovery. Feel free to take an additional day off if you’re feeling beat up. This is your body’s way of telling you that it needs more time for recovery.

Embrace the Digital Fitness Revolution: Online Classes and Apps

Everything is simpler in the digital era. You no longer have to journey to distant gyms or yoga studios to get a good workout. You can obtain a superb exercise session with the world’s greatest instructors right in your living room. Here are a few of the options available to you for winter workouts:

Strength training bodyweight workouts

The ascendancy of bodyweight circuit workouts has been nothing short of spectacular since 2019. On YouTube, channels such as “Carolina Girvan,” “Bodyweight Muscle,” and “Popsugar Fitness” offer amazing resources to help you start and advance along your fitness journey.

Yoga workouts

YouTube has numerous wonderful yoga channels, but none can compare with Yoga with Adriene for clarity and detail in its instructions. Adriene Mishler’s channel is the go-to for beginners, and even more experienced yogis, because of the way its host makes yoga accessible to everyone.

Dance workouts

If you love Zumba, you might enjoy the official Zumba YouTube channel. On YouTube, the channel ‘Steezy Studio’ offers amazing hip-hop dance tutorials at all levels. If you want to take your fitness to the next level through dance, check out the ‘BollyX’ YouTube channel for Bollywood-style workouts that will get you sweating and laughing. 

And if you want to explore further possibilities in dance fitness, many apps and websites now offer live-streamed classes, on-demand workout libraries, and the chance to participate in a dance fitness revolution.

Conclusion

Staying active and sticking to a fitness routine is easier than most people think. There are several online resources that can help you stick to your calisthenics, yoga, and dance regimens, helping you to achieve peak physical and mental conditioning during the holiday season. 

Choose one workout method listed in this article and start small. 

Remember, staying consistent, patient, and dedicated is key to achieving your fitness objectives in the freezing cold. You must dedicate at least 15 to 20 minutes to working out every day to ensure consistent progress.

If you have any doubts or questions about the best indoor workouts explained in this article, post them in the comments below, and I’ll be happy to help!

References:

1. Afonso J, Clemente FM, Nakamura FY, Morouço P, Sarmento H, Inman RA, Ramirez-Campillo R. The Effectiveness of Post-exercise Stretching in Short-Term and Delayed Recovery of Strength, Range of Motion and Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Front Physiol. 2021 May 5;12:677581. Doi: 10.3389/fphys.2021.677581. PMID: 34025459; PMCID: PMC8133317.

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